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The Columbus Housing Partnership, doing business as Homeport, wants to build a five-story,
50-unit building at one of two sites along E. Long Street that are parking lots.

The lots are controlled by limited-liability companies connected to Edwards Cos., which is
building 260 apartments along Long as part of a development called Neighborhood Launch.

Homeport is negotiating with Edwards to buy the sites and also will approach other property
owners, said George Tabit, Homeport’s vice president of real-estate development.

“It’s conceptual at this point,” Tabit said of the apartments.

Still, it’s a development he said he hopes can be done. “It’s come together pretty quickly,” he
said.

Homeport will apply to the city for federal money to help finance the project; the deadline is
Jan. 6. It also will apply for low-income-housing tax credits in February. If the project is
awarded the credits, the $8 million project would break ground in 2015, Tabit said.

Rents would be up to $650 for one-bedroom apartments and up to $795 for two-bedroom units.

It’s hard to find new flats Downtown for less than $900 a month, said Rob Vogt, a principal with
the Columbus apartment-research and -consulting firm Vogt Santer Insights. “There’s a real void for
new affordable choices,” Vogt said. “If we are going to create a more-vibrant Downtown, we need to
provide choices for all households, not just the high, high end.”

Homeport was founded in 1987 through efforts of the city of Columbus and others, including the
Columbus Board of Realtors and the Columbus Foundation, to help low- and moderate-income people
with homeownership and rental housing.

Tabit presented the Long Street proposal to the Downtown Commission yesterday. Members seemed to
support the concept.

“This is what we need long term,” member Tedd Hardesty said.

Member Kyle Katz wondered why Homeport couldn’t build a total of 100 units on the two Long
Street sites. “The demand is there,” Katz said.